The autumn day is silent and the fertile fields are flat.

Pushing aside the layers of shrubs, I was led by my guide every step of the way - Mr. and Mrs. Deng, who are in their fifties.

I was thinking of Mr. Lu Xun's "There is no road in the world, but as many people walk it, it becomes a road." But in the mountains of Junchu Town, Liling, there are really too few people walking on them. Everywhere is not a road, but everywhere is a road.

If you explore your feet, you can reach a tree on the hillside that is ripe at the time of its ripening.

Standing on the mountain forest with the blue sky as the background and the mountain wind as the pull, I seemed to understand why the sweet and sour taste of the jujube cake chewed in my mouth was so original and long-lasting, and the aftertaste was endless.

1. The mountains in the hilly area are not steep, but the altitude of nearly a thousand meters and the steep climb made me severely exhausted.

I drank mineral water from time to time, wiped my sweat and panted, but I was embarrassed to say I was tired, because Mrs. Deng and his wife, who were older than me, looked very relaxed.

"Look, the fruit hanging on it is the jujube tree!" Mrs. Deng turned around and pointed it out to me.

I looked up and saw several tall and straight trees standing on the slope near the peak, with lush branches and graceful leaves.

It turns out that "After autumn, the green clothes are decorated with red beans, and the silhouette is dancing away" is a realistic poem. The faint fruits among the green leaves make people who hold the remaining warmth of summer face the joy of autumn.

We continue to climb.

Unknown birds sang melodiously in the mountains, forming colonies on one hilltop after another. Red dragonflies flew freely in front of us, like flowing flowers in the green mountain forest.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been in such close contact with nature. Although there are spider webs wrapping around my cheeks, what hits my face is not only the freshness of the vegetation, but also the light cage of the morning mist that has not dispersed.

The coolness of early autumn was more obvious in the high mountains. When I stopped walking, my sweat immediately disappeared. My uncontrollable joy turned into a loud shout of "I'm coming", and the valley actually answered me with the same voice.

Looking into the distance, the mountains on the horizon are endless, like a spectacular lithograph carved on the blue sky.

When the Lujiang River flows here, it turns into a slender ribbon, passing through the golden wilderness of rice waves, with a long autumn sky, leisurely heading west.

"The scenery is really nice, a natural oxygen bar." I said.

"It's like this in the countryside. It's just that the country people are tired of seeing it and go out to work and see the colorful world." Sister-in-law Deng said.

I understand, those lonely small buildings scattered at the foot of the mountain, with white walls and red tiles, are mostly occupied by old people and children.

My hometown is nice, but oxygen bars and jujubes are by no means necessities of life.

"We've finished picking the vine pears, the persimmons are all gone, and the chestnuts won't be ripe for another half a month. Now the only fruit left on the mountain is the wild jujube (the name of southern wild jujube in our area) that no one wants!" said Brother Deng!

, his yellow straw hat had long fallen to his back, and the loose hat strap hung on his neck without any tightening feeling. He probably wore the hat like this often, just to show sun protection, and his dark skin was the best proof.

"Why does no one want such delicious jujubes?" I wondered. Although I had drank a bottle of water, the taste of the jujube cake I ate on the way up the mountain was still lingering between my lips and teeth.

He shook his head, pointed to the fruit above his head, chuckled, threw down the old bamboo basket on his shoulder, and climbed up the straight jujube tree like a monkey with only the prepared bamboo stick with a small scimitar tied to the top.

Not liking to talk too much and being immersed in doing things is a characteristic of rural fathers. They have their own ideas and procedures for everything.

Sister-in-law Deng has a plump and strong figure, but this does not affect her ability to walk and work at all.

She stopped me from going to pick up wild jujubes on the ground: "Come on, people in the city have never climbed this steep slope. Let's take a rest for a while. The wild jujubes will hit your head. You try the fruit, but it tastes the same as the made jujube cake."

"To be honest, I have eaten jujube cake for many years, but this is the first time I have seen the fruit.

When I was a child, there was nothing in the mountains around my hometown. The jujube cakes I ate were all brought from my grandmother’s house and other relatives’ houses. I knew it was made from a wild fruit, but how did the wild fruit become so black that the more I ate it, the more I wanted to eat it?

Pliable cake slices, I never thought about that.

All I know is that when I was playing latticework with my classmates, someone used a toy made of fruit cores. I heard they were jujube bones (cores).

Twenty or so oval-shaped light yellow beads are strung together with thin hemp thread. Each bead is the same size and has a circle of five small holes at the top. They are as textured as works of art and fit well. They are easy to play and look good. They are more advanced than my abacus beads.

There are too many, and I am jealous. I always feel that if I can't beat others, I am missing a string of jujube bones.

I picked one and put it in the palm of my hand to examine it carefully. It was oval and golden, slightly smaller in shape than the northern jujube, and somewhat similar to a loquat, smooth and moist.

Completely complying with the natural laws of the biological world, the melons bloom in April, bear fruit in May, and fall from branches more than ten meters high into fern bushes that begin to turn yellow.

It may become a surprise for mice and birds looking for lunch, or it may rot in the wind, frost and dew of late autumn and remain proud forever.

But today, they will be picked up, put into baskets, and brought down the mountain. The unique taste they hold will be interpreted and spread in another way and in another aspect.

Although the fruit is yellow, the body is still very hard, so don’t try to tear the tight skin easily.

Mrs. Deng asked me to start from where the stem fell off. The thick skin was peeled off, and the white pulp was clear and sticky. The fruit fiber should be very pectin, because a thin layer of pulp is still attached to the peel, similar to a mango.

.

I put it to my lips and immediately smelled a unique sour and fresh smell that made me salivate. I took a bite and said, "Wow, so sour!" My taste buds were stimulated. The sourness that hit my teeth was definitely Brother Deng.

The reason why it is said to be "wild fruit that no one wants".